A little bit about me ...

Hi I'm Dawn, married to Mick with one daughter Dannii. I’ve always been reasonably creative but in the last few years been getting into Scrapbooking & Cardmaking a lot more seriously. I love anything to do with papercrafting, and I know I am going to enjoy sharing my love of rubber stamping with papercrafters all over the UK.

Was hoping to get some cards made for for a swap I'm involved with over on ILWS as RoyalMail has lost my original submission a whole 20 cards! but the weather is just too nice, going out to potter in the garden for a while. Will be back to it later ;D

Thursday, 23 April 2009

or substitutes if you don't have or use Stampin Up markers, ink or cardstock.If you do take part in this challenge on ILWSplease quote ILWSCC256 when uploading this challenge.

This is the card I made

A friend at work asked me to make a card for her husband's 50th birthday, she knows I really struggle with male cards ... but she loves my cards so I couldn't refuse. So I doubly tested myself this week by setting the colour challenge to it as well. The colours work really well with some of the papers from Washington Apple Designer Series

The card was taken from a sketch I've had in my sketch pad from some months and knew it would be useful for the 'right' project ;0)

The 50 was cut out on my Robo, DH showed me how to use the Robo and now that I know how easy it is to use I think I'll be using it an awful lot more - good thing really, as it cost a lot and its just been sitting on the shelf since August!

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

And another Chocolate chip card stamped up using Fresh Cuts again using both the resist embossing and spotlight techniques. I love Chocolate chip, I especially love to add a 'crazy' colour, this time I added Taken with Teal which is another favourite of mine :0)

I've seen so many cards in the last week or so highlighting the Spotlighting technique I thought I should have a go, the main image has been resist embossed with chocolate chip ink - this is probably one of my favourite techniques ;0)

I've made quite a few cards in chocolate chip with some 'bright' co-ordinating colours using Fresh Cuts - I'll post more tomorrow.

Sunday, 19 April 2009

It was a really long, but fantastic day yesterday. I left the house at 6.45 to get to Saltdean for an 8am minibus departure which I made in plenty of time. Big thank you to Clair for organising the minibus it saved me the hassle of the train or driving through London and gave me the chance to meet all these virtual people IRL ;0) as well as make some new friends ...

We got there later than originally planned, but I still managed to meet up with friends from ILWS and UKS, it was fab to put some faces to names ;0) I can't believe I didn't get my camera out ;(

I didn't spend nearly as much as I though I would, even though I had custody of DH's credit card for the day ;)

I'm off to do some of the dreaded HW now, but hope to have a play with the new toys later ...

Friday, 17 April 2009

The Stamp with Us Challenge was actually set on Sunday, I can't believe its Friday already! lucky we had a week to get them in, today was the first chance I had to get to this one. This weeks theme is nice and easy - Birthday. I knew what I was going to do it was just getting round to actually doing it. I've always fancied having a go at a Spring card, they are so easy ...

Kraftykate over on ILWS set the challenge yesterday, and what a fab challenge it was ... This time it was an Inspiration and Themes challenge, the inspiration piece was a photo from Harlequin Fabrics and Wallpaper all you have to do is create a card or other papercrafted project based on a picture, upload it to the gallery on ILWS, with ITC17 in the title and link back on the thread here , thats it, easy. This is my submission, I love this one, its so girly ...

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Last month I hosted a card swap on ILWS there were two groups of 10, I thought I should wait until the whole swap has ended until I post the results, it has now all finished all the swaps have been sent ;0) the 2nd group got their cards to me first so here are their cards in no particular order:

Thursday, 9 April 2009

I really enjoyed setting the colour challenge over on ILWSthis week, I really feel as if Summer is on its way (well until this morning, but we won't go there, it is not wet outside).The challenge is to create a card using the following colours

Bashful Blue

Summer Sun

Pixie Pink

Green Galore

or substitutes if you don't have or use Stampin Up markers or ink.If you do take part in this challenge on ILWS please quote ILWSCC255 when uploading this challenge. This is the card I made

and this was, would you believe my 6th attempt!, I knew I wanted to use these colours but I couldn't get them to work with other stamp sets or was it my mojo just not working? anyway it worked here - I love the result, so much so I'm going to make a whole set of these over the Easter break, they are, once you get going really quick and easy to make.

Trim a piece of A4 card to 29x14.5 and fold at 14.5 x 14.5 (I used Green Galore), as a side note do you know what you call the bit that's left over? I didn't until this week, its call a scrapling (thanks Monica) and that you can usefully use this piece to make a tiny card - look at ILWS gallery Monica made a fab mini Easter card this week.

Trim another piece of card to use as a matt (I used Basic Black) to 14x14.

Trim a piece of Whisper White to 13.6x13.6.

Now for the fun bit ...

Using either basic black or black staz-on ink stamp your image all over the cardstock using your stamp-a-ma-jig to ensure even coverage. Colour in your images using the colours above.

Adhered the cardstock to the Matt layer now before embellishing, embellish with whatever you have that coordinates - I used the beautiful Raised dots designer holder from the Stampin Up Hodgepodge Hardware collection 111325 £23.25 - which I'm thinking about setting up a share in, contact me if you are interested? Behind that I used the With Love stamp from the Yummy stamp set from the SAB, and I attached that to the card with dimensionals (padded double sided sticky tabs). I then I threaded 4.76mm Black Gingham ribbon through the holder and wrapped around both layers of cardstock. I then adhered to the main card.

Finished, well almost, I trimmed a piece of white paper to 14x14, stamped the flower image in the bottom left hand corner and coloured it the same as the front, and did the same on an envelope.I hope you like my card, and I hope that you enjoy the challenge ...

The new stash was of course my Baroque Motifs Stamp Set and Tea Party Designer Series Paper, I journalled that it was my daughters 4th birthday and that spent it in her grandparents back garden, I glittered several flower heads, I classed the ribbon and lace as embellishments, I used lace, and it looks like I sewed the matted layers of the photo (I actually couldn't get the sewing machine to work, but as I did try and it looks right - I'm claiming the points) LOL.

Friday, 3 April 2009

Natalie, Monica & Zoe - also collectively know as 'Stamp with Us' have officially launched with their first challenge, well it was a few days ago, but I've only just had a chance to take part. As well as their first challenge they've also announced a designed team call ... I'm going to really enjoy these challenges - I love Stampin Up

The card I made was made with all Stampin Up products, it was made with a man in mind, as an anniversary card - I didn't want to make it too lovey-dovey - What do you think?

I stamped up the two larger pieces of creamy caramel In Chocolate Chip ink using the swirl stamp from the Baroque Motifs set. Its the first chance I've had to use this set since I received it - although I only received it earlier this week (thanks Mom) - I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to ensure even coverage of the design.

I then stamped the flower panel design with Versomark on the 54mm x 54mm piece of Creamy Caramel (using the stamp-a-ma-jig to ensure alignment), added clear embossing powder, and heated with heatgun until shiny then using a finger dauber or sponge and pat Chocolate Chip over the cardstock (note. use a piece of tissue to take colour off embossed image while daubing/sponging)

1. Attach the Stamped 136mm Creamy Caramel CS to the 143mm Chocolate Chip CS.2. Attach the stamped 94mm Creamy Caramel CS to the 10cm Chocolate Chip CS.3. Use snail (or similar) to adhere ribbon around (2.)4. Attach 2. to 1.5. Attach the flower panel to the 58mm Creamy Caramel, and 58mm Creamy Caramel to the 6cm Chocolate Chip. Attach those to the card.

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Its my SU Mom Monica's (Passionflower) Birthday today - Happy Birthday Monica hope you have a fantabulous day - Its thanks to Monica that I'm poor - no I didn't mean that ;0), its thanks to Monica that I've rekindled a love for papercrafting especially cardmarking and most especially Stampin Up.

I made a card and a co-ordinated memo pad in plenty of time for her birthday, so she should have them by now - both using all SU supplies (except one button, the pencil and memo block).

Its an A5 card, so the memo pad is bigger than it looks in the photo, I hope she finds it useful in her scrap area ;0)